Gan Focal

by Mark Wilkins

Gan Focal by Mark Wilkins
Life during the lockdown and one finds oneself turning to the online world for community, support, and solace. The pandemic is a global phenomenon after all, and it would seem by the swell of blogs and posts on social media that millions of people the world over are doing the same. Social media explodes with information, disinformation, misinformation, distraction, and instruction.

One of the most shared posts by the online artistic community tells me ‘use the pandemic and the new reality to write that song, that novel, that screenplay you’ve always wanted to’ but this merely serves to impose a feeling of guilt -after all learning to adapt to the restrictions is difficult enough without the added pressure of trying to summon the muse and create new music.

What if I have no new ideas at my immediate disposal to inspire new tunes or fresh ideas to share with other musicians, let alone an audience?

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The Great 78 Project

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There’s streaming, CDs of course and (the revival of) vinyl. While there is a path from vinyl to CD to streaming is, it looks different with streaming when it comes to older vinyl only releases, since there doesn’t exist a digital copy at all. I myself own a lot of rare vinyl records of the late 70s and early 80s, some LPs, some 12″ or 45rpm singles, that are not infrequently limited to a few 100 copies.

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